Forum:Plagiarism
I made it a rule, listed on the vandalism policy (link to it on the main page), and it is more severe than normal vandalism, but there are some instances where it's a total accident (read: great minds think alike). King Nothing ''Where's your crown?'' 12:35, May 24, 2010 (UTC) :Looks good to me! That is true, it could be accidental. I'm glad that's addressed there. Thanks, MUZ! -- *Insert facepalm and more profanity than you can shake a Keyblade at here* Fucking figures, I suppose. Some days, I'm very sorely tempted to block him just because he pisses me off. Besides, I could use practice for the real vandals out there.... King Nothing ''Where's your crown?'' 20:22, May 24, 2010 (UTC) :Even through we don't officially write it down as a rule here on the wiki, it is always a rule! No matter where you are or what you do, if you use something that someone else has created and claim it as your own, that is Plagiarism, and that is against the law. If someone uploads an image by someone else and claims it as his or her own, that person is given a warning. If a person uses a part of something else in his writing, and does not say where it came from and claims it as his own, that person gets a warning. You see, if any kind of an act of Plagiarism is done, a warning is thrown at the person! However, there are occasions when this is done on accident, but then you simply inform the user of this, and if he does the mistake of saying that it is his own, a warning is thrown at his face. Templates are a completely different matter! It is in all ways ok for a person to use another persons template as a base for his own, and it is enough to merely change the colors and name. We don't want to have to work on making every bloody template have it's own template style, now do we? - Iceboy'' '' 23:50, May 24, 2010 (UTC) My talk buble is essentially a copy/paste/edit ripoff of one Lady Annette used back in the day, but I asked, she was OK with it, and the matter was closed. King Nothing ''Where's your crown?'' 19:45, May 25, 2010 (UTC) :First, let me apologize for my anger. It was unnecessary, and unfair. Allow me to rephrase what it was I need to say. :@Xiggie: I absolutely agree. Any template can be used as a base here on the wiki. HOWEVER. If a template is taken as a "base", more than just the color scheme should be altered. If all they're going to do is change the color scheme, then they might as well ask the creator and user of the template if they can too. :The reason I saw ZACH's template as plagerism is because, well, for one, it was the exact same as my template, only with an altered color scheme. Two, I keep little hints inside my templates to know if they're mine or not, and ZACH didn't get rid of any of them. The most instant and obvious proof was that ZACH didn't change the "Area's Fought" Section on the template, when the "Areas" instead of "Worlds" is something used almost exclusively in my story. Had he have changed that, I might not have been so steamed about it- No. That is a lie. I would still have been angry because of my accomplishment in making the tabber coding functional, which we all know was a big problem with the coding. Had ZACH, no, any user actually asked to copy the template, I might have even said yes, either that, or "I'll make a template for you". In fact, I made one for maggosh that was almost an exact duplicate of my template, albeit color scheme and some field changes. :So, in direct response to you, Xiggie, I do wish ZACH could've asked, or AT LEAST given me credit. As for your second statement, the one about people allowed to copy other templates, i disagree, especially with story exclusive templates marked specifically with stuff like "AKH". Now, when I say this, I'm not talking about the weapon template. That may be marked with "AKH", but I made it with the intention of letting everyone use it. :So, here's the conclusion to my speech. I think, that when it comes to templates, BASES may be used, but no one can only change the color scheme, as that clearly marks, to me, as an act of filthy plagerism, which is NEVER allowed. (Also, generic wiki templates like the expand or character templates are pretty much open for fair use, as no one is likely to make duplicates of them) Can't we just agree that story exclusive templates should not be plagerized without the creator or the user of the template's consent? That way, we can avoid these little skirmishes, make it plain and simple, avoid the drama, and actually get back to editing the wiki. As I see, there are quite a few projects here, including mainspace, Kingdom Hearts Legacy rewrite, and the Staff Page re-amp. -- 20:02, May 25, 2010 (UTC) ::Whoa!! Don't get so steamed. I didn't know exactly what had happened, so I went based off of what I knew. Now that I know it was that Tabbertab template he copied, I can certainly say that ZACH may have reached a new low. And I agree with you on every point, LA. Either permission should be granted beforehand, or the template should receive more than just a color change. Now that I have the information, I completely understand the situation. And no worries about getting so angry about it. Everyone has to let off some steam at some point, and it sounds like you put a momentous amount of effort into the template, so you had a right to be angry. But next time...just try not to blow our heads off...*Sweatdrop*--'ShadowXemnas' Nothingness...is...ETERNAL!!! 14:03, May 26, 2010 (UTC)